Faculty Research Fund- FY24 Awards

May 24, 2024 FRF

The Faculty Research Fund provides support to faculty to establish, maintain, or advance high-quality research, scholarly, and creative activity programs. Awards are made once a year through a competitive process managed by the Office of Research Development and funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School (OVPRDGS). 

The Faculty Research Fund Committee reviews and evaluates applications and makes award recommendations for OVPRDGS approval. The competition is open to full-time faculty from the University of Maine and the University of Maine at Machias. 

Applications were accepted under three categories: the Regular Faculty Research Award, the Summer Research Award, and the Scholarly Equipment and Materials Award.

The Regular Faculty Research Award supports research or scholarly activity directed towards a defined outcome deliverable in one year. The Summer Faculty Research Award provides summer salary support to ensure dedicated time for research and the Scholarly Equipment and Materials Award provides for equipment, library collections, or other materials to facilitate the advancement of research. This year, twelve recipients received awards; the projects selected for funding are as follows:

Regular Faculty Research Award

  • Babak Hejrati, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering; “Identifying the Neuro-biomechanical Interaction between Mobility and Cognition”
  • Jane Puhlman, Assistant Professor, Communication Sciences & Disorders; “A Method to the Morphosyntax? Efficacy of the SMART Explicit Grammatical Language Instruction Method for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Children”
  • Jasmine Saros, Professor of Paleolimnology and Lake Ecology, School of Biology and Ecology and the Climate Change Institute; “Monitoring a Suite of Arctic Lakes after Compound Extreme Events”

Summer Faculty Research Awards

  • Melissa Cuba, Assistant Professor of Special Education, School of Teaching and Learning; “Enhancing and Expanding Collaboration to Support PreK to 12th Grade Multilingual Learners with Disabilities”
  • Mary Freeman, Assistant Professor of New England History; “Politics in the Archives of Abolition”
  • Jennifer Moxley, Professor of English; “The Duncan Alphabet”
  • Nimesha Ransinghe, Assistant Professor of Spatial Computing, School of Computing and Information Science; “Controlled Electrical Stimulation on the Tongue to Address Taste Impairment Associated with Older Adults, Particularly Those with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders.”
  • Johanna Richlin, Assistant Professor of Anthropology; “Needle Phobias: The Making of Medical Mistrust, Vaccine Skepticism, and Novel Solidarities in the U.S.”
  • Laura Rickard, Associate Professor, Communication & Journalism; “Dreaded and Unknown: A Mixed Method Approach for Studying Information Processing and Behavioral Intentions Related to PFAS Risk Communication”
  • Hillary Smith, Assistant Research Professor, School of Marine Science; “Understanding the Role of an Emergent and Climate-Resilient Fishery Targeting Invasive Green Crabs for Maine’s Food Systems”
  • YongJiang Zhang, Associate Professor of Plant Physiology, Biology and Ecology; “A Novel Perspective in Climate Change and Plant Response: Fast Environmental Fluctuations and Transient Stresses”

Scholarly Equipment and Materials

  • Nicholas May, Assistant Professor, Communication Sciences & Disorders; “High-Speed Camera for Vocal Fold Research”

For more information about the program, contact Ed Derrick in the Office of Research Development, edward.derrick@maine.edu.